24% of Millennials have $100,000 or more saved

[morgan98]

Yes, I have worked for 2 of the Big 4 and both had pension plans. I assume the other 2 do as well. On the other hand, they both only matched .25% of 401K contributions.

Yes, I have two of these too. But they are really a defined contribution plan where the firm put a certain % of your wages into the plan which you can withdraw once you reach the required age. They in no way guarantee a certain % of your highest year earnings or a certain payment every month. It was just another savings vehicle for them to contribute to your retirement since they really did not match the 401(k). Both of mine have a current cash value and can be viewed just like by 401(k).

***Not saying they are not called "pension plans." Just pointing out they are not what people consider when they think of a pension.

 

[RedAngie]

View attachment 469825

Thanks for posting this. I haven't heard this one before. DD age 30 hates mayo and now I have something new to tease her with.

 

[tzolkin]

Remember that "Millenials" can be as old as 39 this year.

Yes. The article actually is counting age 24-41 so it's easy to see that there would be a good percentage of people that age who have been saving for quite a few years.

It's very difficult for me to consider myself a millennial, but by most charts I do technically fall into that category (1981). When I think of "millennials", I think of the "young kids" I know in their late 20s- early 30s who are newly married, no kids. I've owned my own home for nearly 20 years, my oldest child just turned 21, and I'm fairly certain that I have more saved for retirement than my parents do.

 

[tvguy]

I don't get all of the millennial hate. I work with A LOT of millennials and I think they are all hard workers, eager to learn, and I don't have a bad word to say about them. Of course, I do work for a company that attracts go-getters and driven people so that may make a difference too.

That's great, send some my way. We certainly have a few that are go-getters. But in 45 years in this business I can honestly say I have never seen a larger group of under 30 in the work place that question the tasks they are assigned. Having questions ABOUT the assignment I get, but questions about why we are doing a story catch me off guard.

 

[tvguy]

16% of the Fortune 500 companies still offer a pension plan to their employees and 1 in 7 workers in this country work for some form of government. Most skilled trade union members either have a pension or an annuity retirement program through their union.

None of those get counted as savings for retirement when these surveys come out. This has an even bigger impact on the Gen X and Boomer retirement savings numbers because they have a higher chance to have been employed long enough by a company to be vested in a now closed plan.

Only 16%? That is pathetic. As I have posted before, my wife has been in a union job for 41 years, the union has never offered a pension. And a lot of unions have gotten out of that too, probably for the same reasons companies have dropped penisions. They are unpredictable and under or un-funded .

 

[mrodgers]

Yep, our 401K is very very happy. But we're middle aged.

Another reason could be later in life marrying and having kids. My DS turns 23 tomorrow and at his age we were married and expecting him. By 25 we had 3 kids and a house. So no saving for us until way later in life. (and my DS-23 has like $80 but he lives on his own)

This. I'm 47 and I'm still trying to save. I have 1 in college and same support for the other now so expenses have gone up quite a lot. I didn't have mine until 28, but I was married for 4 years in a trailer and before starting to save to save, I needed money to buy a house.

 

[Moliphino]

Well, sure, it's easy to have healthy savings once you destroy the real estate, diamond, and department store industries.

Don't forget paper napkins and chain restaurants!

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

That's great, send some my way. We certainly have a few that are go-getters. But in 45 years in this business I can honestly say I have never seen a larger group of under 30 in the work place that question the tasks they are assigned. Having questions ABOUT the assignment I get, but questions about why we are doing a story catch me off guard.

It's usually seen as a negative but I wouldn't always consider it to be. Why should people continue to do processes the same way over and over and over like robots. Sometimes it takes someone questioning why to get minds going.

I get the impression for at least some people it tends to be how someone approaches it, meaning how someone asks or questions.

 

[Searc]

Surveys like this are always somewhat misleading. Pensions aren't as big as they once were, but if you are vested in a pension you have a future source of retirement income that is not reflected by savings stashed in a 401k.

I believe I read only 7% of US companies offer pensions to their employees.

 

[HeatherC]

That's easy to do when you don't have any bills because Mommy and Daddy are paying for everything.

You don’t know that. And I have to say your post comes across as quite envious or jealous. Why not be happy for them?

 

[tink89]

That's great, send some my way. We certainly have a few that are go-getters. But in 45 years in this business I can honestly say I have never seen a larger group of under 30 in the work place that question the tasks they are assigned. Having questions ABOUT the assignment I get, but questions about why we are doing a story catch me off guard.

I am one of the very few millennial's at my work place. And i must say I have never seen a larger group of over 45 in the work place that question the tasks they are assigned or think they know how to do it better or easier or complain of having to do things in a new way or using technology.

 

[HeatherC]

.

 

[mrodgers]

The stock market also grew double digits. And this is only 24% of this population. In that context it’s pretty bad.

By 44, I only had $100k in 401k. That is when it was cut in half and split. In the last 4 years, my $50k has tripled.

 

[Searc]

You don’t know that. And I have to say your post comes across as quite envious or jealous. Why not be happy for them?

I am not envious of anyone living off their parents. It isn't anything to be proud of or brag about.

 

[HeatherC]

I am not envious of anyone living off their parents. It isn't anything to be proud of or brag about.

You don’t KNOW if they are living off their parents. Many millennials I know are busting their butts every day to make a life for themselves. Why begrudge someone else their success.

 

[mrodgers]

Never lived with parents past high school and live in the most expensive area in the country (and own our own home here) and am a millennial who has more than that figure saved. Lots of different factors and circumstances go into these things (and no, no trust funds or inheritances).

Also really helps to have a really good paying job (not the norm), stay single, and not have kids.

I was only at my job 362 days after college before I ended up engaged to be married. I also had to work my way up to a decent paycheck and didn't have decent at that time.

I was putting 9% away in 401k including the company match for 20+ years as I said in my other comment and only reached $100k in mid 40's.

 

[tvguy]

I am one of the very few millennial's at my work place. And i must say I have never seen a larger group of over 45 in the work place that question the tasks they are assigned or think they know how to do it better or easier or complain of having to do things in a new way or using technology.

LOL. I don't think ANY work place has a large group of over 45s anymore. Here, over 55 and over 15 years with the company, buy out time

 

[mrodgers]

I don't get all of the millennial hate. I work with A LOT of millennials and I think they are all hard workers, eager to learn, and I don't have a bad word to say about them. Of course, I do work for a company that attracts go-getters and driven people so that may make a difference too.

It's only a small amount of millennials in a weird non-common demographic called California, Portland, and NYC that is looked at to stereotype the generation.

Millennials around here for the past 10 years at work have been running circles around the old farts.

 

[gillep]

Also really helps to have a really good paying job (not the norm), stay single, and not have kids.

I was only at my job 362 days after college before I ended up engaged to be married. I also had to work my way up to a decent paycheck and didn't have decent at that time.

I was putting 9% away in 401k including the company match for 20+ years as I said in my other comment and only reached $100k in mid 40's.

Like I said. Lots of factors. I met my husband the first week of college, engaged my last year of undergraduate, and married two years later while I was in graduate school and he was working.

One thing we have done is move across the US for different jobs for each of us as the opportunities have arisen (we have each worked for two different companies in our adult lives so it isn't as if we change jobs frequently at all), which has given us an income advantage, but has come with other disadvantages. Not only have we not lived with either of our parents since high school but we haven't lived within 2K miles of them in over 10 years!

Personally, I do not know of any millennials who have lived with their parents after college, or been supported by them post college, but apparently those are the only millennials anyone else has ever met. Most of my friends that I went to college with have better paying jobs than their parents, but we all went to an engineering undergrad, and graduated 1-2 years before the last recession, so my sample is skewed considerably.

 

[Heather07438]

This is very smart of them to well plan for the future. Who knows what a 33yo's life expectancy may be. 120+?